Austin Fun

We spent a week with my older sis up in the Austin area, and stopped at the brand-spankin'-new Boerne Public Library on our way up. It is beautiful! I admit... I had my reservations when I learned they were building a new place and moving out of the lovely old antique-y building on Main Street. But I've been won over. The pic above is out on their porch-style reading room. Screened walls, lovely view of the trees and brush below, fans on the ceiling, comfy wooden chairs to sit in... Everything would be perfect except that it was about 100 degrees and humid outside. I can imagine it being great in cooler weather.

We stopped at Wal-Mart, too. Bob was quite smitten with Maeve.

We got to Aislinn's house a couple of hours later, and her girls and my girls were pretty excited to see each other. Maire and Aine love mothering little girls, and Maeve seemed to enjoy it, at first. Nuala was thrilled to have big girls around her, too. Here the three older girls were trying outgrown clothes on Maeve. They sent her into the kitchen with a sign that said, "I love you, Mommy" taped to her tummy. It was cute. The boys were also very excited to see each other. It was loud there. Aislinn and I were excited to see each other, and all the nieces and nephews. It was... exciting.

When we got to A's house, we spent the afternoon at a local splash park place. It was fun and cool and had a sandbox, too. One of those sprinkler parks, you know? Why in the world Boerne or northern San Antonio doesn't have one or SEVERAL of those, I'll never know. Seriously, it's Texas. It is HOT here. We don't need more unshaded parks, we need cool places for the kiddos to play in the summer. Rivers are grand, but a sprinkler park or two would be awesome. Okay, mini-rant over.

We went to the Bluebell Ice Cream factory in Brenham the following day. We went on a tour of the place, and got a free scoop (huge scoop! yum.) at the end. See our nifty hats? See the nine kids we wrangled everywhere? Four of them boys ages 6, 4, 4, and 2. They were... rowdy. Nuala tends to behave even better the rowdier the boys get. Oh, she has her shining moments, for sure, but she takes great pleasure in pointing out how well-behaved she is compared to the boys.

Maeve and Maire. M&Ms...

Annnnd, us. Aislinn, my mom, and me. Just because there are no other pictures of us in here. And because, as usual, we look goooooood.

Here is Maeve on Ciaran's car. He was trying to trade his light saber for the car, but she wasn't too interested. He was funny, trying diplomatic tactics at times, and then resorting to more two-year-old-ish approaches ;) Maeve kept calling Ciaran, "Baby," which is quite humorous, seeing as how he is 9 months older and noticeably larger.

Friday the 29th Patrick celebrated his 12th birthday at an awesomely fun pool. Seriously, Boerne! I love you, but WHY is there nothing like this pool in your area??

Here's a glimpse of some of the fun-ness. There in the middle, a big ol' slide with a rope climby thing and those big buckets that fill up and dump on innocent bysplashers...Right behind my mom and Maeve is a set of three slides for the tykes. Maeve and Ciaran LOVED them. The bigger little kids did, too. There was a bigger slide into the deep water, and a high platform to jump/dive off of. Both were fun. There was a waterfall in the medium-deep area, and then THIS...

Nuala was a little whiz at these barrels. After a couple of tries, she was able to cross it successfully pretty much every time. It was fun watching her focus, and seeing her little muscles. She's pretty wiry and has some good muscle definition, she does.

Bran... Poor little dude. He tried it once right when we got there, and fell in pretty much immediately. Then he was off romping and wrestling and splashing with the boys. I wasn't surprised, since he's a little less focused than Nuala, in general. Towards the end, though, he was back at it, lining up over and over and over again. He kept falling in, but would make it a little farther each time. Finally, I was up on the platform, about to execute a quite-splashy cannonball, when I saw him, alllllmost at the very end. I stopped up there, with a great view and everything, and willed him to make it across. Seriously, he was on the last "log" and just needed to hop onto the concrete. The lifeguard told me to go, but I just had to watch a little longer. He took forever, though, the rascal! I was holding my line up a ton, so I cannonballed in and resurfaced, thinking he'd still be there at the edge, but nope. He was climbing out of the water. He'd splashed in there at the end. I was so bummed for him. He just got in line again. And again. And again.

He never made it all the way across, but he sure got a lot better strategy-wise, and he never got frustrated. Not once. He's pretty amazing that way. He has such a good attitude, my little guy. And he kept making all sorts of friends in line. Except for one very big boy who snarled viciously at him to "stop trying to get in front of me!" when Bran was just standing beside him trying to watch the boy who was crossing since he couldn't see past Big Mean Boy. AND after I'd already said loudly to Bran several times, "remember you're behind this boy," etc., etc., making it clear that we all knew where his place was. What a brat boy. He got an earful from me. A long, annoyed, not-nice earful, and he had the good sense to look quite abashed. Also, Big Mean Boy tried to whisper it to Bran so I wouldn't hear him! My ears are good, though, especially when it involves my kids. Grrr... Anyway, off on a tangent, once again. It was a fun, fun, FUN pool.

Maeve fell asleep and we gently plunked her on baby wraps on the gym floor at the big kids' basketball games. Rowan loves to hold babies' hands. When Ciaran was a baby (now 2), Rowan would always go hold his "baby arm" when he was nursing or just lying peacefully there. He couldn't resist doing the same to snoozing Maeve...

Las Chicas. They look like they could be sisters, those little blondies.

Hanging out on a lazy, HOT morning.

Rub-a-dub-dub, four boys in the tub. Guess how much water ended up on the floor.... almost felt like we were back at the splash park...

All the kiddos after church on Sunday. They clean up nice, don't they?

Ha! This was funny. Maeve and Ciaran were both sitting on the cooler after church, except Maeve did not want Ciaran on it. So she tried to push him off. She's yelling "Nooooo!" in all these pictures, and Ciaran... well, he's just got some great expressions, he does. Especially in the first two. And he wouldn't budge.

She never did succeed, much to her annoyance. Oddly enough, she really likes to get her way.

The Mayborn Museum. We almost always head up to Waco to go to the Mayborn Museum. It's a great little museum, with loads of hands-on stuff for the kiddos. There was an Egyptian Exhibit this time, with a "real, live mummy!" and everything. We had to keep clarifying that even though it was a "real, live mummy!" it wasn't really alive and would not come alive once night fell. Bran was a bit spooked that evening back at Aislinn's house. Luckily, a "real, live mummy!" did not make the trek back from Waco and come a-tapping at his door.

Officer Bran Man.

Firewoman Maeve.

Checking out the turtles.

Nuala and Rowan.

Riding the horsey.

The boys (and Maeve) enjoying a nice herbal tea break.

Hanging out inside a gigantic bubble.

Maeve preparing herself for our next-summer move to Okinawa.

The next day we went to a bounce house place. Who doesn't have fun there?

We got back from bouncing and had very, very, very colorful cupcakes as a last nod to Patrick's and my birthdays, and then my three and I headed back to Boerne. We had such a great time at their place!! I love my sister :) And her family. It was hard to leave, since the kids were having a blast in that houseful of cousins, but we got to see them again (oh, yes we did!) before we left Texas (which actually takes place tomorrow morning, sob, sob).

It was nice getting back to the relative calm of Granny and Grandad's though, and I had ANOTHER bday treat waiting for me. And so far, 32 is pretty darn good...